Academic Interpretations

 

1.  Frontier Thesis

 

Frederick Jackson Turner, 1890s

 

"The existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance

of American settlement westward explain American development."

 

            1890    U.S. Census Bureau announced the disappearance of a contiguous frontier line

 

                        --Six or fewer people per square mile

 

            1893    "The Significance of the Frontier in American History," delivered at the World's Columbian Exposition in     

                        Chicago

 

The Frontier Is:

        Continual cultural evolution (savage-hunter-ranching-agriculture-villages-industry)

 

        Continual moving border that applies to the whole of U.S. history, not just the West

 

        Rapid Americanization

 

        Individualism

 

        Democracy

 

        Triumphant

 

        Analysis of the past & warning for the future (disappearance of “free” land)-safety valve

 

 

Moving frontier or distinct region?

 

 

 

2.  Environmental Determinism—Walter Prescott Webb, 1930s

 

            Physical Environment determines culture

    Human adaptation to the physical environment

 

 

3.  Six Themes of North Dakota History--Elwyn B. Robinson, 1960s--"Declensionist" Interpretation

 

a. Remoteness

 

b. Dependence

 

c. Radicalism

 

d. Economic Disadvantage

 

e. Too-Much Mistake

 

f. Adjustment to Region

 

 

4.  Four Sources of Regional Culture--Tom Isern (contemporary)

 

a.       Cultural Heritage (social systems, religion, foodways)

 

 

b.      Environmental Adaptation (sod houses, barbed wire fences, windmills)

 

 

c.       Technological Innovation (cars, combines, internet)

 

 

d.      Metropolis—centers of population, capital, and influence (railroads, government programs)

 

 

 

                    Sense of Place

 

                    Plains Literature

 

                    Pilgrimage

 

 

5.  The Great Plains in Transition--Carl Kraenzel, 1950s

 

“Sutland” and “Yonland”

  

Based on region—especially county level and metropolitan centers

 

 

 

            See Also:

 

            Isern, Tom. Dakota Circle: Excursions on the True Plains. Fargo: Institute for Regional Studies, 2000.

 

            Daniel Kemmis, Community and the Politics of Place, University of Oklahoma Press, 1990.

 

            Carl Kraenzel, The Great Plains In Transition. University of Oklahoma Press, 1955.

 

            http://www.raconline.org/info_guides/frontier/

 

            http://www.frontierus.org/defining.htm

 

            http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/sdc/data/ruralurbanmetrononmetro.htm